For years, Axe has been insisting that the smart way to treat leaky gut syndrome is to add a little dirt to your diet. (Leaky gut is a condition in which the lining of the small intestine becomes damaged and allows toxic waste products, bacteria and undigested food particles to get into the bloodstream.)

Axe is the author of several books on this and other subjects, including “Eat Dirt,” “The Gut Repair Cookbook,” “Bone Broth Breakthrough” and “The Real Food Diet,” among others.

Healthy soil-based organisms

In his writing (and his PBS show), Axe argues that dirt is good for you because it contains helpful soil-based organisms, (SBOs), that are teeming with active (and healthy) microorganisms.

He especially likes to talk about how your ancestors pulled carrots out of the ground, wiped them off (slightly) and ate them.

Mmm!

That’s good dirt!

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Let your kids be kids, dirt isn't all that bad for them. Angeli Kakade (@angelikakade) has the story.
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When Axe speaks before an audience, as he does in his PBS presentation, there is often plenty of smirking and squirming. But, Axe’s followers praise his thesis and say his advice has changed their lives.

Among his claims: That SBOs aid the body in creating B vitamins, vitamin K2 and antioxidants; that they help free the body of pathogens such as candida and that they help keep allergies at bay and strengthen young immune systems.

Benefits of dog ownership

Axe is also a big fan of dog ownership. “Owning a dog can help reduce a child’s chances of allergies,” he writes. “Those pup paws bring in a diverse range of microbes from the outdoors, helping to prime a young immune system.”

What Axe feels is common sense may or may not answer one of the great debates of the last two decades: Why do so many millennials have allergies?

Axe is not alone in believing that kids need to play outside (in the dirt) and not have their fruits and veggies cleaned so scrupulously.

(Axe does recommend buying organic veggies, though. Other vegetables often contain pesticides and other chemicals that need to be thoroughly rinsed away.)

The "Hygiene Hypothesis"

WebMD has weighed in on the matter: “A mounting body of research suggests that exposing infants to germs may offer them greater protection from illnesses such as allergies and asthma later on in life.

“This line of thinking, called the ‘hygiene hypothesis,’ holds that when exposure to parasites, bacteria, and viruses is limited early in life, children face a greater chance of having allergies, asthma, and other autoimmune diseases during adulthood.”

Mind you, there is a disorder, called geophagy, in which people are compelled to eat dirt. Although this was long considered an abnormality (and still is, if done to excess) studies have shown that eating dirt is not uncommon in other cultures. And animals exposed to the outdoors do it all the time.

An article published in Scientific American in 2012 noted that this behavior “provides people and animals with vital minerals and inactivates toxins from food and the environment.”

The Ancients knew the value of dirt

The article notes that geophagy has been observed in 200 species of animals. Its use among humans goes back to the ancient Egyptians, who used mud and clay to treat an assortment of ailments, and to indigenous Americans, who often sprinkled dirt on potatoes and other live foods.

Using mud for health purposes goes back to the days of Nefertiti.(Photo: Markus Schreiber, AP)

Today, according to Scientific American, Africans who have access to calcium don’t need dirt in their diets, but those who don’t have high-calcium foods (or vitamins) to eat, still eat dirt, which provides them with necessary vitamins and minerals.

Axe doesn’t recommend sitting down with a spoon and a flowerpot, but does say that if you buy organic, you don’t have to scrub your veggies to death. (Or, cook away all their dirty goodness by boiling them into oblivion.)

Axe is also a proponent of eating spirulina, a type of blue-green algae that is often referred to as a “superfood.” (You might say Axe considers it part of the dirt family.)

Columnist Bill Ervolino(Photo: The Record)

The downside: Parasites

Parents should keep in mind that there is a big difference between the dirt a kid ingests while playing outside and eating large quantities of the stuff. The dirt in your backyard also contains parasites, including worms that cause a variety of illnesses.

So, all dirt in moderation?

Perhaps.

Anyone considering the addition of some Mother Earth to their mother’s meatloaf recipe is advised to read up on the subject first.

Axe’s books may be a decent start, but there are others on leaky gut, it’s symptoms and treatments.